


there must be more than blood (that holds us together)

by iridescent_blue



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, F/M, Found Family, M/M, and also some introspection on leaving but not really leaving, and im also drunk on loving my Homies juice, completely unbetaed but i DID edit bc this is so fuckin.. SHORT, just a quick one about my thoughts on the foxes moving away and stuff, just had some thoughts on friends and family n stuff bc my sisters movin out, like theres no other fucking reason seriously it was just the title, literally wrote this bc of the title, more like wymack is the Ultimate Dad, so eugh heres the relationship with my boys that i CRAVE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:01:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25661044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iridescent_blue/pseuds/iridescent_blue
Summary: There must be more than wind that takes us away.The girls graduate and, surprisingly, it's okay.
Relationships: Matt Boyd/Danielle "Dan" Wilds, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 9
Kudos: 77





	there must be more than blood (that holds us together)

**Author's Note:**

> hi this is Mad Short and self-indulgent because CSH got me emo (again)
> 
> anyways ill ramble more in the end notes
> 
> title from Car Seat Headrest's "There Must Be More Than Blood"

The girls graduate and surprisingly, it’s okay. The day itself is full of pictures and smiles, the Foxes whooping for Dan, Renee, and Allison as they walk across the stage, heads held high with pride and defiance, staring down the crowd that expected them to crash and burn as they accept their degrees. They throw their caps into the air and hug each other tight, the first Foxes to win the championships and graduate. They are queens.

The girls graduate, and the Foxes fucking  _ party.  _ After Exy and brawling, it’s what they do best. They all congregate at Abby’s, playing music and mixing drinks well into the early hours of the morning. None of the freshmen are allowed, obviously. This is a night for the original Foxes, the ones who really know what went down in Baltimore, the ones who showed at Aaron’s trial as character witnesses, the ones who’ve had each other’s backs from the moment they signed onto the team. This is their night. 

Neil gets properly drunk and dances with Allison and Dan, getting spun around like a little awkward ragdoll. At some point, he develops some sort of rhythm, but that doesn’t last long. What matters is that he’s laughing, scars bared as Allison dips him and Dan spins him. Sure, Nicky, Aaron, and Andrew may be genetically related, but the girls have adopted Neil as their own, the same way that Wymack’s become their father. 

Renee and Andrew spend the night sitting off to the side, Andrew slowly drinking his way through half a bottle of whiskey, and Renee sipping her soda. Anyone who looks over at them either sees them deep in conversation or just sitting in silence, existing in the same space. If anyone cared enough to eavesdrop on their conversation, they wouldn’t hear plans for the apocalypse. They would hear Renee telling Andrew about her plans to join the Peace Corps, with Andrew promising to send her packages of books and photos to keep her from getting lost overseas. No one sees, but as the night draws to a close, Renee puts an arm around Andrew’s shoulders for a moment and squeezes, looking him in the eyes and telling him that she’s proud of all he’s become. Instead of remaining impassive like he normally would, Andrew gives Renee a ghost of a smile, warm and genuine, and tells her to come back and visit. After all, he’s got some more copies of the Columbia house’s keys that he needs to get rid of. 

At midnight, Allison gathers all of the Foxes together to open the response from a design company she applied to anonymously. She’d wanted to prove that she could get anywhere she wanted through hard work and talent rather than riding on her family’s name, and Neil is the first to tackle her in a hug when she starts to cry at the acceptance letter, detailing that they’d be  _ grateful for her to join the team _ . The rest of the Foxes pile on, and Allison emerges a bit disheveled and snotty but still holding herself like a princess. After all, she deserves it. The designs she submitted were out there, made with the idea of being functional and fashionable, something that almost anyone could wear without being uncomfortable. She’d asked Neil for input after designing him some pieces that looked good without making him feel like his scars were bared to the world. There are other pieces, conscious of people with mobility restrictions and issues with texture, something Allison found out the hard way when Neil refused to buy a shirt on the account that it made his scars itch like there was no tomorrow. Needless to say, it was a gamble, especially with a couture brand, and one that paid off extraordinarily well. Wymack cuffs her on the head, reminding her to not let her head get too big as a big-league designer. But he hugs her too, telling her that even if her parents don’t care, he does, and he’s proud.

Wymack gifts Dan with a whistle shortly after the graduation ceremony ends, a parting gift for her to start her coaching career with. He’d gotten it engraved with her last name and number, and when he gives it to her she latches on to him, almost dragging him to the ground in a hug. He gruffly promises to be at her first game and to always, _ always _ pick up the phone for her, and Dan, who is usually so stoic and unshakeable, starts to cry. Nicky gets a picture of Wymack wiping away a few tears, too. He sends that one to Abby for safekeeping. 

The girls graduate, and it’s okay because they stick around for a while. They’re not being kicked out  _ that _ easily, not after everything they’ve been through with the team. After finals week, the Foxes pack up their dorms and bring their stuff home before going out to Oregon, to hike and ski and get drunk and loud without dealing with noise complaints from Abby’s neighbors. Surprisingly, Kevin is as graceful as a newborn fawn and Matt, having grown up further north, is pretty solid on a snowboard. It’s a good two weeks, though snow in summer is strange, but they have fun, playing card games until the sun comes up and taking pictures of each other to plaster onto the wall of the lounge. 

They stay there for two weeks, and then Dan needs to get down to Georgia to meet her new team, Allison’s going to Seattle to start working, and Renee’s going all the way to Fiji to volunteer to secure access to clean drinking water. So they make the most of their two weeks together. The last night in the big house, they all pile together in the living room, a nest of pillows and blankets and bodies, getting as close as they can before they part ways. It’s like Baltimore, but this time, Neil giggles at jokes and they all sleep through the night, instead of waking up every hour to make sure that it wasn’t all a hallucination.

And then the girls leave, and it’s okay. It’s more okay than they were expecting. They all Skype regularly, Neil and Allison have their same shit-talking sessions, only virtually, and Dan gives all of them advice about dealing with the freshmen on the regular. She comes up every few weeks to spend a day or two with Matt, typically when Andrew’s crew is in Columbia for the weekend. 

They’d all been bracing for the inevitable falling apart that seems to happen when people move away, the idea that they were only friends due to proximity, but it never comes. The first Foxes game that the girls don’t play in, they’re in the stands, watching and cheering their family on. And they come and visit whenever they can. And they call, and text, and video chat, and talk shit and gossip and have movie nights, just like old times. 

And they never grow apart, not really. Because sure, they didn’t grow up together. They met in college through coincidence and Wymack’s bleeding heart. But still, they’re family. They bled for each other, they fought for each other, they walk each other down the aisle at their weddings and run through hospitals after injuries from games. Their bond was forged out of necessity but maintained out of love. So maybe they’re not family, in the dictionary sense. They’re more of a pack. Fiercely devoted, ready to throw down at a moments’ notice, but ready to pick each other up and keep moving, no matter what happens. 

Because they’re Foxes first. Everything else is secondary. 

**Author's Note:**

> hi :) my sister just moved out (literally today) and i saw my friends for the first time in a while yesterday. so I'm just stewing in thoughts about loving my friends and also loving my sister. and this happened. because honestly? found family is just as valid as bio family and i hit the jackpot with both. love my brothers and my sister sm. 
> 
> so yeah. this was short. i also posted yesterday. umm probably not gonna post for a hot minute after this (tho i will write a part 3 for How to Be a Human Being) because the aftg exchange is happening and then 15 days after assignments go out i go into surgery so.. gonna try and get ahead on that. 
> 
> anyways if u liked it leave kudos or a comment aight bye :)


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